We are looking for an enthusiastic early career scientist to work as a Post Doc in the research team of dr. Julia Engelmann (department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, Royal NIOZ, Texel, the Netherlands). The team’s overarching interest is to understand how marine microbes interact with each other and form communities. The team applies bioinformatic and network biology approaches to marine marker gene, metagenomic and transcriptomic sequencing data to infer these interactions.
THE PROJECT
At the base of the marine food web, microbes act both as primary producers and degraders of organic material. This organic matter fuels life in the oceans. While recent years have seen a tremendous increase in knowledge about diversity, genome composition and metabolic capabilities of microbes living in the ocean, we are still lack insights about how these communities interact and work at the systems level. Computational approaches such as network modeling can be used to generate hypothesis about potential interactions, which can then be validated with functional or other experimental approaches. Potential interactions include for example the provision of nutrients or energy substrates, competition for nutrients or response to signaling molecules. The Post-Doc will focus on elucidating marine microbial inter-species interactions in the Southern Ocean (Rothera, Antarctica; a 2 month expedition in 2021 is planned) and will perform sampling, high-throughput sequencing, network modeling and validation experiments both in the laboratories at Rothera and the NIOZ. One question we aim at answering is how climate change impacts microbial communities and especially their inter-species interactions in the Southern Ocean.
THE CANDIDATE
Do you have a PhD degree in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Microbiology, Molecular Ecology, Microbial Ecology, (Bio-)Statistics, or related fields? Are you organized and motivated to work in a vibrant research environment? Do you have computational and experimental (laboratory, field work) skills? Do you have good command of at least one programming language such as R or python and experience with Unix/Linux systems? Then apply for this post! Ideally, you also have experience in the analysis of high throughput genomic data. Due to the international character of the research group and institute, an excellent command of the English language is expected.
APPLY ONLINE
https://www.workingatnioz.com/job-application.html?id=7486
CLOSING DATE: 05-01-2020
CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
We are offering a fulltime position for 3 years, a pension scheme, a yearly 8% vacation allowance, year-end bonus and flexible employment conditions. Conditions are based on the Collective Labour Agreement of Research Centers. The position will be located on Texel. Cost of relocation and help with housing is provided by NIOZ.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Additional information about the vacancy can be obtained from: Dr. Julia Engelmann (julia.engelmann@nioz.nl, Research Scientist).
Additional information about the procedure can be obtained from Alexandra Noppeney (alexandra.noppeney@nioz.nl, Sr HR Advisor).
Interviews will be held Jan 13-17, 2020.